Hennessy
Wins in Trademark Infringement Case
On October
16, 2006, the Shanghai High People's Court made the final judgment on
the case in which Societe Jas Hennessy & Co. (Hennessy) sued Zhuhai
Xiangmutong Trading Company (Xiangmutong) for trademark infringement.
The
court ordered the defendant to cease the infringement of the registered
trademark "Hennessy", to compensate RMB 300,000 yuan (US$ 37,500) and
to publish an apology in Xinmin Evening News.
The court applied the following principles when judging whether the
marks "Hanlissy" of Xiangmutong and "Hennessy" of Hennessy are similar,
including comparing the marks in overall appearance as well as their
prominent elements, viewing the marks separately and taking into account
the distinctiveness and fame of the registered trademark. According
to the above principles, the court found that the trademark "Hanlissy"
of the defendant is similar to the registered trademark "Hennessy" since
they have the same initial and closing letter, similar overall arrangement
of the letters and similar font style. In addition, the court held that
as "Hanlissy" and "Hennessy" do not have particular meanings, Chinese
customers whose mother tongue are not English will be easily confused
by the two marks. Therefore, the court ruled that the trademark "Hanlissy"
used by the defendant has infringed the registered trademark "Hennessy".
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